Opera on WRTI

Saturday, 1 to 5 pm

Saturday is always opera day at WRTI! We bring you top performances from some of the finest opera companies in the world, every week of the year!

In addition to the full season of opera from The Metropolitan Opera, you'll hear performances from the Academy of Vocal Arts, Lyric Opera of Chicago, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and more.

Mon March 2, 2015

No man can resist Carmen's charms. But when she’s ready to move on, watch out! A riveting drama of love and jealousy, filled with famously alluring melodies and captivating dances, Carmen is one of the world’s most popular operas. Georges Bizet’s immortal score overflows with one delight after another - a music lover’s hit parade of opera’s most intoxicating melodies. Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca sings the title role. Saturday, March 7, 1 to 4: 30 pm on WRTI. Sung in French.

The Metropolitan Opera on WRTI

3:44 pm

Fri February 27, 2015

New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert walks across Lincoln Center Plaza to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in this perennial favorite of Mozart'sDon Giovanni.Peter Mattei is the rakish Don, Elza van den Heever is Donna Anna, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello declaims his catalog aria, and James Morris takes Don Giovanni to his judgment as The Commendatore.

Creatively Speaking

9:21 pm

Sat February 21, 2015

Inspired by the life, fame, and philosophy of Andy Warhol, ANDY: A Popera is a cabaret/opera hybrid that will feature original music by Dan Visconti and Heath Allen, and a cast of Opera Philadelphia and Bearded Ladies regulars.

11:56 am

Thu February 5, 2015

The East Coast premiere of an opera about the 19th-century, Anglo-Irish writer Oscar Wilde is from Feb. 6th t0 15th at the Academy of Music.As WRTI’s Jim Cotter reports, Wilde's life story is as compelling as his work.

Oscar Wilde came to America early in his career, even before he’d written anything of any consequence. He was already a gifted raconteur.

Historian John Cooper is an authority on Wilde in America. He says many of Wilde’s most-quoted phrases, like much of his writings, have a timeless quality.

Tenor Vittorio Grigolo sings the title role of Hoffmann, the tortured poet and unwitting adventurer who is looking for love in Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, a fantasy opera based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann. The libretto was written by Jules Barber; the opera was first performed in 1881 in Paris. Saturday, January 31, 1 to 4:30 pm on WRTI.

One of the most-beloved opera arias is The Tales of Hoffmann's Barcarolle, Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour:

Creatively Speaking

4:17 pm

Mon January 26, 2015

Opera star Deborah Voigthas always been a straight-shooting diva, openly discussing her weight problems, the surgery she underwent to address them, and the possible effects that had on her voice. Yet as The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns reports, the singer goes well beyond that in her new autobiography, Call Me Debbie.

Sat January 24, 2015

Franco Zeffirelli’s classic take on Puccini’s most popular opera, the immortal tale of tragic young love, is set among the rooftops of bohemian Paris. Soprano Kristine Opolais sings the role of the fragile Mimì, with Jean-François Borras as the love-sick poet Rodolfo. Riccardo Frizza conducts. Puccini's La Boheme, Saturday, January 24, 1 to 4 pm.

Do you know the astonishing story about how Kristine Opolais made history at The Met? Read about it here!

Over the weekend, soprano Kristine Opolais sang her heart out — and died twice.

Friday evening she had sung the lead in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. It was her debut in that role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. It was a big deal. Opolais was so excited about it that she stayed up until five the next morning.

The Metropolitan Opera on WRTI

9:23 am

Sat January 17, 2015

The great Renée Fleming stars as the beguiling femme fatale who captivates all of Paris in Franz Lehár’s enchanting operetta, The Merry Widow. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play, L'attaché d'ambassade (The Embassy Attaché) by Henri Meilhac. Saturday, January 17, 1 to 4 pm on WRTI 90.1 FM.